An ethnobotanical survey on hormozgan province, Iran.

OBJECTIVE
The present study is based on an ethnobotanical research project conducted in Hormozgan province that is located in south of Iran, bordering waters of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. This survey was carried out in order to recover the ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal knowledge of the residents of this province. They are using medicinal and functional plants for treating or preventing several diseases.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ethnobotanical data sheets were run with the native inhabitants and people of the province by arranging frequent field trips to different parts of the province and direct interviews with them especially those who were more familiar with the plants and their usage.


RESULTS
A total of 150 plant species belonging to 53 families were recorded for their ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal uses among the people of province. The records were developed by scientific names, family names, local names, medicinal parts used, different ways of their application, and traditional uses of the plants. There was high compliance in the use of plants in painful disorders, gastrointestinal, and dermatological diseases.


CONCLUSION
This study revealed that the people of Hormozgan province have a rich knowledge of natural resources. The use and consumption of medicinal plants are still important parts of their life. Rational use of native medicinal plants may benefit and improve their living standards and quality of life. The results of this study can be used as a basis for selecting herbs for further pharmacological, phytochemical, and pharmacognostical studies.


Introduction
Ethnobotany, understanding of knowledge systems through using anthropological methods, and ethnomedicine, as its branch are as old as man himself. Ethnobotany and ethnomedicine consider the collection of useful medicinal plants by a group of people and describing different uses of them. Utilizing plants for medicinal purposes has been done since the dawn of man (Namsa et al., 2011;Oliveira et al., 2011). Little by little people observed special interesting effects from each plant. Some of these people became experts in treating several ailments and illnesses using efficient plants and then they passed their knowledge to others verbally or by personal experiences (Kunwar et al., 2010;Zolfaghari et al., 2012). During this processes some information may be lost, vanished, or forgotten due to the society modernization so in this study we decided to collect these valuable documents and traditional knowledge in one of the southern provinces of Iran, Hormozgan. As a result, we can improve the quality of life and living standards of the native people by rational and standard using of medicinal plants along with effective synthetic drugs (Namsa et al., 2011;Oliveira et al., 2011).
Nowadays, almost 80% of world population uses medicinal plants for their primary healthcare needs because they are effective, cheap, and available (WHO, 2007). About 70,000 plant species are used in traditional medicine and nearly a tenth part of them are used in Asia. Iran which is located in southwest Asia, in the northern hemisphere, contains rich ecosystems and biodiversity due to the various climatic conditions and geographical characteristics (Bhattarai et al., 2010;Mirdeilami et al., 2011;Naghibi et al., 2005). Iran is surrounded by three seas and a passage toward the oceans. The flora of the country contains more than 8000 species and several of them are used in traditional Iranian medicine (Ghahreman, 1973;Namsa et al., 2011;Sabzian, 2008). A few ethnobotanical researches have been done in Iran and there is no previous published records on ethnobotanical knowledge from the Hormozgan province (Amin, 1991;Ghassemi Dehkordi et al., 2012;Gholassi Mood, 2008;Ghorbani, 2005;Ghorbani et al., 2006;Mazandarani, 2006;Miraldi et al., 2001;Mirdeilami et al., 2011;Mosaddegh et al., 2012;Naghibi et al., 2005;Shams Ardekani et al., 2011;Sharififar et al., 2010;Shokri and Safaian, 1993;Soltanipoor, 2005;Zolfaghari et al., 2012).

Geographical and historical overviews
Hormozgan province district is situated in the southeast of Iran ( Figure 1). More than 70% of the province is covered by mountains and hills thus it is a mountainous region (IGA, 1983;Zaeifi, 2001). The district is bounded by Kerman province in the north and northeast, Fars and Bushehr provinces in the west and northwest and Sistan and Baluchestan province in the east. The southern parts of this province which is surrounded by warm waters of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea is approximately 900 km. This province is located between northern latitude 25⁰ 24' to 28⁰ 57' and eastern longitude 53⁰ 41' to 59⁰ 15'. It occupies an area of 70697 km 2 (IGA, 1983;Sabzian, 2008;Mozaffarian, 1991;Soltanipoor, 2005;Zaeifi, 2001).
The history of Hormozgan province is mixed with the history and geography of the Persian Gulf. Hormoz straight, one of the today's most sensitive and vital waterways, is situated in political territory of this province. Bandar-Abbas, Bandar Lengeh, Minab, Bandar Charak, Bandar Jask, Roudan, Khamir, Parsian, Sirik, Hadji-Abad, Kish, Hormoz, Abu-Moosa, and Gheshm islands constitute the famous townships and areas of the province. Bandar Abbas is the capital of Hormozgan province and Gheshm is the largest island of the Persian Gulf (Soltanipoor, 2006;Sabzian, 2008;Attar et al., 2004;Shahi et al., 2011). Figure 1. Map of the study area (Hormozgan provice, south of Iran, bordering waters of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea) (Zaeifi, 2001;Sabzian, 2008).

Climate and vegetation types
Three types of climate exist in this province. The natural vegetation is forest, rangeland, and desert. Relatively high humidity, irregular, and little rainfalls with hot weather result in growing some special and native plants. Several of these plants are being used for medical purposes by indigenous people (IGA, 1983;Soltanipoor, 2005;Zaeifi, 2001). The average temperature affected by humidity is moderate and rarely gets higher than 45 ⁰C in summers. In the deserts, the temperature is about 0 ⁰C but there is no frigid weather in winters. The annual rainfall is less than 250 mm and relative humidity is more than 80% (IGA, 1983;Morid et al., 2001;Sabzian, 2008;Zaeifi, 2001).
There are 900 plant species in the province that too many of them are medicinal. Different climate conditions result in growing of specific plants such as special marine plants and mangrove (Avicennia marina) forests which are very rare (Mozaffarian, 1991;Soltanipoor, 2005;Zaeifi, 2001). Iranian Mangrove forests as unique and highly productive ecosystems of the world were recorded in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea by Eratosthenes, who was a great geographer about 2300 years ago. Iran has the highest acreage of natural mangrove forest (Ghasemi et al., 2010;Sabzian, 2008).

Materials and Methods
Data collection and field trips were arranged in order to collect information about traditional and folk knowledge of medicinal plants by the local inhabitants, native practitioners, and old people for the treatment or prevention of several ailments. Direct interviews with local people especially those who were more familiar with the herbs and their usage, were the main method. Ethnobotanical data sheets were used to document the medicinal knowledge by holding the direct interviews with people and gathered information was checked again with the people of other neighboring areas (Bhattarai et al., 2010;Mosaddegh et al., 2012;Sharififar et al., 2010;Zolfaghari et al., 2012).
All collected plant specimens were dried, pressed and authenticated with the help of available literature and flora (Ghahreman, 1973;Rechinger, 1982). After the scientific name identification of the plants, the specimens were deposited in the herbarium of Hormozgan Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center, Bandar Abbas. The popular names of plants as well as their pronunciations were recorded.

Results
In this paper information of 150 medicinal plant species were collected. This information contains scientific names, family names, local names, medicinal parts used, ways of their application, and traditional uses of them. A part of therapeutic properties of the mentioned plants were found in scientific resources and literature. This could be valuable since people use these plants because of their local useful effects. The information was sorted in Table 1 alphabetically.

Discussion
There are good network and several phytopharmaceutical industries and a technical wealth of botanical and herbal medicine experts available in Iran, however there has been little effort to document the volume and impact of medicinal plants in this country. More successful efforts are in progress about these fields. The Traditional Medicine Chancellery in the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education was established in 2012 and for the first time in Iranian medical history, offering the postgraduate PhD degrees in Persian traditional medicine and traditional pharmacy sciences in Iranian universities of medical sciences were started from six years ago.
Hopes to find more achievements especially in the ethnobotany and ethnomedicine disciplines are flourishing.
By doing this ethnobotanical research and after discussions with the people of Hormozgan province it was learnt that they are very close to the nature like other parts of Iran and the plants listed in the Table 1  Papilionaceae, Solanaceae, Asclepiadaceae and Umbelliferae, each with less than ten species. The ethnobotanical usage of medicinal plants in this is interesting and monopolizing and leads researchers and other medical and pharmaceutical experts to investigate further ethnopharmacological and pharmacognostical investigations (Attar et al., 2004;Soltanipoor, 2005;Soltanipoor, 2006). In this way, some species may be used in herbal drug preparation after the confirmation of their therapeutic efficacy and extraction of their active natural ingredients.
Although the indigenous knowledge about plants is very important and useful, clinical trials and pharmacological studies should be done to prove their definite phytotherapical effects (Kazemi et al., 2012;Kunwar et al., 2010;Ghassemi Dehkordi et al., 2012;Zolfaghari et al., 2012).
There has been relatively little basic research on the plants of Hormozgan province, Iran. This paper indicates that indigenous herbal knowledge is still alive in Iran and local people of Hormozgan province tend to use medicinal herbs and natural health products of their ecosystems for primary healthcare needs. The ethnobotanical survey of Hormozgan province allowed us to document the persistency of a number of traditional uses of medicinal plants, most of them are unique and original and potentially interesting as a basis for future research works.